Risking It All
by Kemma Lee
Summary: Alice leaves to find Bella and save Edward. Jasper doesn't like being away from her. Done as a request from a reader on LJ, set during New Moon. As always, I don't own these beautiful characters. ...So don't sue me!


******Title**: Risking It All  
******Disclaimer**: Not mine O.O just borrowing.  
******Characters/Pairing: **Alice/Jasper  
******Summary**: Alice leaves to find Bella and save Edward... Jasper doesn't like being away from her.  
******Rating: **PG-13

As I've said before, I take requests. This is the first of three that I have so far. It was done as a request from a reader over on LJ, who asked for something that showed the time Alice and Jasper were away in New Moon. This was difficult for me to write, because NM gives us so little to go on about their time away from Forks. I thought I'd post it here to share with my FFNet readers, too. ^_^

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Risking It All

1/1

"Don't go back there, Alice," he begs her. "Please, just stay here. Stay with me."

She'd seen it; Bella, the cliff, the water. She'd seen it all. And she was preparing to leave. "I have to, Jasper. I have to see if it's true... before Edward finds out."

"He'll find out either way. Besides, your visions are subject to change, aren't they?"

"It's already happened," she mumbles quickly. "I know it."

"Alice - _Alice_." He places his hands over hers, pausing her work at buttoning up her shirt. "...Don't leave me. Or at least let me go with you."

"Oh, Jasper..." His eyes are wide, frightened. Like she'd never seen them before. Because she'd never left him. She tiptoes, and places a gentle kiss over his lips. Wrapping her arms around him, she sighs. "It'll be quicker and easier if I just go alone. I just need to find out if it's true, and then I'll be back. I promise."

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

"What are you apologizing for, Jasper?"

Everything, he thinks. "It doesn't matter, Alice. Just go and come back, and don't you dare try to stay and play the hero, or I will come after you."

"You won't even miss me," she mumbles to him as he hugs her tightly.

He already did.

* * *

He can't understand it. Oh, he understands going to find Edward. In fact, he'd wanted to go with her. Until he found out she was with Bella, that is. That's the part he doesn't understand; that's the part that, no matter how hard he tries, he can't get his mind around. Alice was risking her life not only for her brother, but for _Bella_.

He loves Alice, but sometimes she pushes him to the point where he wants to...

_No,_ he thinks. _It's in her nature._

It's in her nature to help people, to risk her own safety if it means she can protect someone else. But to risk her life for what? A human who had gone and messed things up, thrown herself off a cliff and, as a result, make everyone think she was dead?

No, Bella wasn't at fault in this. He could blame it on her all he wanted. The ultimate reason they were in this situation, though, the one who set all this trouble in motion... it was _him_. How long had it taken him to perfect (and he could hardly call it perfect) his self control? How long had it taken him to be able to go to school every day, surrounded by human beings, and not lash out at them?

Centuries.

How long had it taken him to come undone?

_Seconds_.

And now, Alice was in danger. Alice was in danger because they'd left, because Edward had left Bella and she simply couldn't take the pain.

Alice was in danger because of _him_.

"I promise," she'd told him. "Don't follow me," she'd said. "I love you."

Her last three words lingered in his mind, repeated themselves over and over again. It'd taken every ounce of willpower that he had to not get on a plane as soon as he hung up with her and go to Volterra. But she'd asked him, she'd put faith in him that _he_ would put faith in _her_.

He tried.

That didn't stop him from pacing for hours on end in the family room. His gift was putting everyone in the house on edge.

"Alice will be fine, Jasper. Please, sit down."

"You don't know that, Rosalie," he hissed. "Besides, who had to drag you two back to the house? You were more worried than I was initially."

"That's before you spoke to her."

He ignored her and continued pacing. He considered hunting, but he feared he would wander into town accidentally and then the Volturi would be after _him_. In his hand, he gripped his cellphone. He prayed for it to ring, prayed to see his wife's name on the screen.

"When Edward gets back," Emmett decides, "I'm gonna kill him."

"You and me both," Jasper mumbles. "Come on, Alice. They've had enough time already."

Rosalie rubs at her temples. "Jasper, you're really giving me a headache."

"Your significant other isn't in Italy, is he?" He sighs. "And the fact that Bella isn't even dead to begin with... Edward's over there for absolutely no reason at all."

"Look," Rosalie says, "this _is_ my fault in some ways. I opened my big mouth, and I'm sorry. I was only going off what Alice saw."

Jasper couldn't blame Rosalie for any of this. Mainly because he knew she really wasn't at fault. Partially because his phone had just lit up.

* * *

For the first time in his life, the smell of human blood doesn't bother him. The fact that he's standing in the middle of a crowded airport doesn't even _phase_ him because all of his attention is focused on finding her. He smells Bella before he sees Alice, but his eyes are locked on the tiny brunette head bopping up and down in the crowd once he finds it.

His eyes meet very briefly with Edward's, but he doesn't look at Bella, doesn't check to see if she's okay and definitely still breathing. He doesn't even acknlowdge her, and he doesn't know if it's out of anger, irritation or fear of what he would see when he looked into her face.

It didn't matter, because he could see Alice in full now. She skids to a halt before him, and without words, grasps his hands tightly with both of hers. She stares up at him, unblinking, her onyx eyes wide and he knows: Volterra wasn't as easy as she had anticipated. All the words she might've spoken were there in her eyes: _I'm sorry. Forgive me. Never again. ...I love you._

He squeezes her hands briefly, and let's out the breath he'd been holding unnecessarily. "Let's go," he whispers, and she simply nods her head in agreement. They're completely silent for the entire ride, as are Carlisle and Esme, but their fingers are linked together so tightly that Alice finds it hard to straighten hers out when they reach their destination.

Alice follows him inside, and no one tries to speak to them; no one wanted to keep them apart any longer because they knew better. When the door to their room closes behind him, Jasper barely has time to react before Alice throws himself into her arms.

"I am _so_ sorry, Jasper."

He shushes her quietly, running his fingers through her hair, his hands over her shoulders, down her arms and to her hands. "You did what you had to do," he says, because he thinks scolding her for nearly causing him some twisted form of cardiac arrest. "And you came back in one piece; that's all that matters."

"And Edward."

"And Edward," he agrees.

"And Bella."

".......And Bella."

Alice looks up at him. "She isn't angry with you, Jasper. She never was."

This doesn't stop him from being angry with himself. Still, he nods his head because he wants this conversation to end; he wasn't want to talk about _Bella_. In fact, he doesn't want to talk at all. So, he grasps Alice's face gently in his hands and bends down offer her a long, firm kiss.

She wraps her arms around his neck, and from that moment until the next morning, except to discard those offensive articles of clothing that really aren't necessary, their lips never part again.


End file.
